Speculative culture and corporate high-quality development in China: mediating effect of corporate innovation

This paper associates the speculative culture with the corporate total factor productivity (TFP), aiming to explore the influence of speculative culture on corporate high-quality development. The results reveal that the presence of a speculative atmosphere varies across different regions in China, leading to uneven development among companies located in these regions. Specifically, companies situated in regions with a weaker speculative culture demonstrate higher TFP. The finding suggests a causal relationship between speculative culture and corporate high-quality development by adopting an instrumental variable test using natural calamities. Moreover, the research indicates that speculative culture can impact corporate high-quality development by influencing their innovation activities. Additionally, the study identifies heterogeneous effects of speculative culture on companies of different sizes and levels of analyst attention. The implications of this research shed light on the influence of speculative culture on the real economy, providing insights into the informal institutional factors contributing to the corporate high-quality development in different geographical areas. These findings contribute to the promotion of economic high-quality development at the geographical level and inform related policy formulation.